Beyond the Black Door

[rouxangel]

Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland

 

Okay, so I just finished reading this book and it was soooo good. No spoilers, I promise, but here's a quick overview:

 

Beyond the Black Door is a fantasy story about a girl named Kamai who is trying to avenge her mother/stop the apocalypse. Kamai has the ability to walk in other people's dreams. In every person's mind, there's a black door that follows Kamai, and she has been told to never open it. After Kamai's mother dies, she opens the black door, which (unsurprisingly) sets off a chain of events that are really not that great (read: apocalyptic). So from there, Kamai is trying to figure out who to trust and how to stop the apocalypse that she accidentally kickstarted. Yay, what fun!

 

Kamai is ace (more specifically a demi-biromantic ace), and a major focus in the story is her discovering the terminology ("new soul" in the book) and that she's not the only one who identifies like that. Kamai's love interest is also ace, and there's quite the collection of other queer characters (including trans, gay/lesbian, bi, etc.). In the fantasy world, there is pretty much no stigma surrounding queerness (🥰) though they do use a very basic "metric" for describing gender/orientation that cuts out nonbinary identities and orientations towards nonbinary identities (i.e. skiliosexual, pan, and similar).

 

Also, the author, A.M. Strickland, identifies as a gray-biromantic asexual! 

 

IMPORTANT

Warnings: death, semi-graphic violence, suicide attempt, rape/violating bodily autonomy (via removal of contraceptive), talk of/allusions to sexual assault, HIGHLY toxic relationships

[Yoruka]

MOther: Don't disrespect my wishes, don't open the door-

 

Kamai: I wOnDeR wHaT's So BaD!

[Asterion Orestes]

An old meme. Reminds me of the Welsh story of Bran the Blessed, which contains a warning against opening a certain door.

[Homer]

There's also an article about the book here